This week 22 members of the Australian Labor Party lined up for pre-selection for next year’s election for the ACT Legislative Assembly. There are more candidates than seats in all three electorates so a pre-selection vote will be taken on November 25.
Some people might be concerned that the ACT is in for a year-long campaign and wonder why Labor is pre-selecting so far out from an election. They need not be. It will not be possible to maintain an intense campaign for a year.
The pre-selection timing is well worthwhile in the context of the ACT’s Hare-Clark system and Labor is to be commended for abandoning the idea of attempting to run party tickets or to aim to change the electoral legislation to allow for above-the-line party voting. Instead, the party is to permit candidates to run individual campaigns with individual fund-raising and spending in addition to the overall campaign. Candidates would obviously have to be careful to remain consistent with overall party policy if they want to avoid the appearance of disunity. In the past Labor has insisted on a single campaign and with rare exceptions centralised the funding of the campaign – both with respect to the collection and spending of money.
The change of attitude is an acknowledgement that the Hare-Clark system, approved and entrenched with Robson rotation by 65 per cent of the voters in referendums in 1992 and 1995, is here to stay and it is better to work with it than against it. The Robson rotation system prevents the donkey vote by printing different batches of ballot papers with the names of candidates in a different order, so candidate gets a roughly equal number of ballot papers with his or her name at the top.
In making that acknowledgement, Labor has sacrificed some of its traditional strict party discipline. It means Labor will present its five candidates in Brindabella and Ginninderra and its seven in Molonglo as equals. The party will not pre-select an order, unlike in the Federal Senate where the first two positions on a state ticket are a guarantee of election with the third in with a chance and fourth and fifth in a hopeless position. In the ACT incumbents will still have the advantage of being better known, but it will not be such as large advantage as being high on a party ticket with party voting. It means incumbents will have to work hard and challengers with the real incentive of a reasonable prospect of winning a seat will have to show they are worthy. That is the fundamental logic behind the Hare-Clark system, voters can still vote for the party they prefer but they can chuck out any sitting member they feel is not performing.
It is a good thing, therefore, that the pre-selection is taking place nearly a year from the election. It will give the electorate time to assess the candidates and it will give the candidates a chance to prove themselves.
The process should help the position of women. Last election, Labor lost two sitting women and ended up with an all-male team. At least one of those female members was lost through a quirk of the Robson rotation which has since been fixed. Under Labor rules women must get a third of the pre-selected positions, but there will be no shunting women to unwinnable spots nor any affirmative action, all candidates will be equal and candidates can raise their own funds, including funds ear-marked for women candidates. If more women win, it will be on merit.